A Tale of Twisted Men and Nightmares
by Buddy909
Summary: A RWBY/Thaumcraft crossover. Asteritch Praecuos is a thaumaturge, people who study the world in order to gain an understanding of everything. He has recently had an... interesting accident with a certain pearl and has woken up in a new place. Here, people are attacked by the creatures of Grimm. But hey, that's what Asteritch and his new step-sister are for, right?
1. Primordial Mishaps

**Welcome everybody to my second fanfic ever! I thank all of you who are reading this for giving it a chance. That being said, this is my second fanfic, so reviews are always welcome.**

 **This story is a RWBY/Thaumcraft crossover. It isn't in the crossovers section because Thaumcraft is a mod and I almost exclusively reference Thaumcraft instead of the game it mods, Minecraft. This story also assumes that you know a little bit about Thaumcraft, but I'll try to make it new-person friendly.**

"Normal speech."

'Thoughts of person being followed.'

' _Thoughts that the person being followed hears, but aren't theirs._ '

" _Someone Else speaking._ "

 **Person Being Followed**

* * *

 **Asteritch**

To say that Asteritch was annoyed is like saying that the Grand Canyon is big. It's true, but doesn't even begin to describe how much so it is. Asteritch had recently come back from his excursion into the Outer 'Lands', to call it a dimension might be wrong if his theories are correct about it. He normally referred to it as the Other Place to keep things simple. Now, it was great to have returned alive and sane, well mostly sane, he even killed a great eldritch guardian and acquired a primordial pearl. Said pearl was the source of his annoyance currently in all of its resplendent multi-colored glory. It was refusing to follow any of the rules of normal matter, i.e. it wasn't letting him break it down or even scan it.

Sure, there was the idea that this pearl was irreversibly shackled to this reality, but that was a whimsical thought at best, not even a theory. 'Is it really just a thought though?' he thought. If it was, that would explain why he couldn't break it down. " _What happens when something shackled to reality meets the void_?" he heard in his head. This was the fifth time that Someone Else had helped him. They were always helpful when he was stuck in a rut, and they always seemed to know the answer even though they only asked questions, so he just stopped questioning them.

'But how would they meet?' he asked himself. Then, an idea popped into his head. Just infuse the pearl with the aspects of the void. He retrieved the pearl and changed out of his thaumium fortress armor, basically purple metal samurai armor, into his more casual purple robes. He liked the color purple, it was the color of royalty and magic, or at least the color of magic's aspect.

He ran through his sizable stone tower until he reached the infusion altar in the basement. The altar was a simple construct of four man-height towers around a runic matrix. Below the matrix was a pedestal and spaced evenly apart around the altar were eight more pedestals. He placed the pearl in the center pedestal and ran back upstairs to grab some void metal and void seeds. Once he had them, he ran back to the altar and placed them in an alternating fashion around the center on the pedestals. He then ran over to his essentia jars to make sure only Vacuo and Alienis were selected to be withdrawn from. All he had to do now was start the infusion.

He reached for the matrix to start infusion. As soon as he touched it, there was a flash of light as he was sent flying backwards from an explosion from the pearl. He hit the natural stone wall of the room, though his runic protection took the blow for him.

As he stood up, he saw that the pearl was gone. In its place was a glowing white portal, akin to the portal to the Other Place in shape. He started walking towards it, partially because of his curiosity, partially because he felt like he was getting pulled towards it. "Where do you lead to?" He said before he reached up to touch it. When he touched it, everything went white and he passed out.

* * *

"... He's waking up!" A voice said as Asteritch slowly regained consciousness. He opened his eyes and saw red, lots and lots of red. As his eyes slowly focused, he realized that the red belonged to someone, it was their hair. His eyes seemingly popped back into focus. He saw that a girl with long red hair was observing him, her emerald green eyes watching his every move. ' _Just like_ they _did._ ' He shook away that thought and went back to observing her. She couldn't have been older than 10, and she was wearing a tiara in her loose red hair.

He decided to get some information. "Where am I?"

…

'What the hell happened to my voice!' He thought. 'I sound like I'm 10!' He looked down to his body and took a good look at his proportions. 'Scratch that, I think I am 10. But how, I was 20 before I made the portal. Did it change my age?'

" _There's no going back._ " Someone Else said in his head. 'Well, I guess that means I'm stuck here.'

"You're in my house in Mistral." She said as if it was the most obvious thing ever. Before he could respond, a man walked through the door of the room. He looked around the room. The walls were a light teal, there was a window on his left and a door on his right in the corner, and he was on a bed in a corner opposite to the door. There was also a wooden desk in the corner to his right.

The man had short bright red hair and soft blue eyes, must be the girl's father. His face was akin to a brick, but had strong, defined features. His torso was large and strong, but not buff, and he wore a light blue polo and black jeans. He pulled out the chair in front of the desk and placed it next to the girl and sat down. "Are you alright?" He asked.

'What will my story be?' he asked himself. "I'm fine, though I think I hit my head."

The man raised an eyebrow. "Why do you say that?"

"Well, I have a small headache, and when she said I was in Mistral, I couldn't recall ever hearing of such a place." Asteritch told him. 'Good, let's stick with the truth for now, until they ask about my past.'

"You think you have memory loss? What do you remember?" The man asked.

'Well, time to lie.' "I… remember waking up and asking where I was, then you walked in." Asteritch lied. The man's face scrunched up.

"Very well then, for now you'll stay with us until you do remember." The man stood up and put the chair back. "I'm Peleus Nikos, this is my daughter Pyrrha." He said as he gestured to the girl. "Now, what do you know about the Grimm?"

"The depressing?" Asteritch guessed.

Peleus sighed. "No, the creatures of Grimm. They're creatures of darkness that have no soul and are drawn towards negative emotions." He explained.

"Ok." Asteritch said. 'This is going to take forever.'

* * *

The next few hours were filled with history and science lessons, in which he learned many things about this new world such as Faunus and dust. The dust wasn't impressive, it sounded exactly like crystallized essentia, though what people managed to do with it was astounding.

Pyrrha had invited him to spar with her, because they assumed that he had been in combat school because of his weapons. That made his job of explaining everything so much simpler. He was currently in their backyard in his robes and his weapons in hand. He had a zephyr longsword, which in reality was a katana, and his thaumic revolver, which was apparently outdated in this world. He hadn't been able to find his runic shielding.

He drew his katana from its sheath on his hip and held it in both hands, it was made for 20 year old him and 10 year old him wasn't large enough or strong enough to use it in one hand. He kept the point close to the ground as readied himself for battle.

"Are you ready?" She asked as she got into her stance with her sword and shield. He simply nodded as he tensed himself. She ran at him as he just stood there. As she approached, he flicked the blade backwards and then seemingly slid backwards a few yards. Pyrrha preemptively stopped and raised her shield for his follow-up attack, which shortly arrived after he flicked his blade back up, causing himself to slide back to where he had just been, and did a large upwards slash. Pyrrha then slashed at his face, which was rewarded with Asteritch getting a cut on his cheek.

Pyrrha realized what she did and put her weapons away. "Stop!" She ordered. This confused him, but he sheathed his katana.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"Why didn't you tell me you didn't have your aura unlocked?" She asked.

"I didn't think it was that big of a deal." He replied, which was part of the truth. The other part was that he thought that by simply being in this world, people had this magical 'Aura' unlocked. He still didn't understand aura from what Peleus had explained.

"It is! I could have accidently killed you!" She screamed. Asteritch winced, he didn't see why she was yelling.

"Look, calm down." He said as he put his hands on Pyrrha's shoulders. "Is it possible for you to unlock my aura?"

Pyrrha suddenly looked timid. "Yes, but I've never done it before and it could do some really bad dam-"

"I trust you Pyrrha." He replied.

"But I-" Pyrrha babbled.

"Just do it." Asteritch interrupted.

"Ok." Pyrrha placed her hand on his chest and started chanting. "For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee." Her hand glowed white as Asteritch felt a barrier get released. It was as if a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders and he felt like he could fly.

Suddenly he could hear screaming. " _MINE!_ " He heard Someone Else shriek. A violent flash of dark red emanated from Pyrrha's hand as she fell backwards limp. Asteritch rushed to catch her and checked her pulse. Alive, but unconscious was what he decided. He struggled but eventually succeeded at putting Pyrrha on his back piggyback style and walked back into the house.

As he entered the house, Peleus saw him and approached him. "What happened?"

"Turns out I didn't have my aura unlocked, so I asked Pyrrha to unlock it for me. I think it lashed back at her and knocked her out." He knew there was more to it than that, but hopefully that would never have to come up. "Where is her room?"

"Down the hallway, to the left." Peleus answered with a slightly worried expression.

This confused Asteritch. "Why are you so calm?"

Peleus chuckled. "This isn't exactly uncommon when people unlock someone else's aura, so I'm not surprised that she's unconscious. I'm just hoping she learned something from this."

"What is it you want her to learn from this?" Asteritch asked.

"Sometimes, she can't do things by herself and expect to be fine." Peleus answered. "Now, go put her down in her bed, I'm sure carrying her in her combat gear is tiring for someone your size." Asteritch made no pause as he bolted towards the room Peleus had said was Pyrrha's room. He entered through the open door and found a room of red and yellow. He put her down in her bed and knelt by her side.

'I've never known Someone Else to react like that. Was he trying to claim her or was he trying to stop her from unlocking my aura? Either way, they've changed. I don't like where either train of thought leads to.' He looked at Pyrrha's sleeping form. 'I don't think she wanted to hurt me, but because of me got inadvertantly hurt herself.' He put a hand on her shoulder. "I vow on my title as a thaumaturge to protect you until the end."


	2. Welcome to Beacon

**Hello there. Sorry for the delay in the update of story, I had finals to go through. There will be no update in any of my story's for the next three weeks, as I won't have access to a computer during that time. Also, for anyone who reads my other fanfic, I will still update that one, this one hasn't replaced it. This story will also have other Minecraft mods in it, however that is in the far future of the story and Thaumcraft is still the main focus.**

"Normal speech."

'Thoughts of person being followed.'

' _Thoughts that the person being followed hears, but aren't theirs._ '

" _Someone Else speaking._ "

 **Person Being Followed**

* * *

 **7 Years Later**

 **Asteritch**

Asteritch was sitting next to Pyrrha on just about the biggest airship he'd ever seen, or at least it seemed that big. He couldn't really tell because today, everything was blurry because of his "condition". By the stars did he hate to lie to Pyrrha, but that was something from his past he would prefer to stay buried.

When Pyrrha told him that she was planning to go to Beacon instead of Haven, he had immediately asked why. He wasn't entirely surprised when she said that it was because she wanted to meet more people who treated her like a person, not an idol. She was quite surprised when he had told her that he'll go with her to Beacon. She had initially told him to not base his decisions around her, but he had insisted.

Back to the present, he was currently sitting next to Pyrrha in his combat gear which had evolved from when he was younger. His gear still included his robes, though because he had grown and they hadn't, they had become a cloak with a hood. Under his cloak, he was wearing a full suit of light plate armor and a helmet with a faceplate that could be raised and lowered. He was also wearing gloves underneath his gauntlets made from the sleeves of what was now a cloak. He had opted out of wearing his faceplate today to avoid scaring people.

He was looking around the room at the splotches of color that he assumed were people. There was a lot of muddled colors, but some people had wardrobes that stood out. There was bright yellow with a lot of red seemingly smothered in said yellow, he couldn't tell if it was one person or one person smothering another, there was green with pink and white dashing around it, and there was also black in the corner.

As they airship slowed down for its final stop, Asteritch decided to try to brave out the crowd and got up from his seat. Bad idea he realized, because as soon as he stood up he walked into someone in white. "Hey! Watch where you're going." She said.

"Sorry, won't happen again." He quickly apologized as he waited for Pyrrha to get up. "Today its blur." He said as she got up from her seat. They had given each of his "symptoms" a nickname, as it only seemed that there was a short list that he could be afflicted by. She neared him and hooked her arm around his as to act as a guide.

"This way." She said as she walked him towards the opening of the airship. As they exited the ship, an explosion echoed throughout the courtyard. "Oh my Oum, did they really just explode?"

Asteritch closed his eyes and used his thaumic vision. One of the perks of his "condition", if he blocked out his sight he could see things for what they were made up of, though he could only individually detect powerful objects/beings or people, everything else was more of a suggestion. People also tended to blend together in crowds, though he was still able to identify the fact that it was a crowd. With his thaumic vision, he looked towards the explosion and was able to make out _Ignis_ and _Gelum_ , the aspects of fire and ice, respectively.

"Yes, probably caused by dust given the ice." He said.

Pyrrha just shook her head. "Why you can't just use that instead, I'll never understand." She claimed. "Just follow me." They jogged towards the explosion site. He wasn't sure if they were the same, but he thought that he saw white walking off and red on the floor. "Are you okay?" Pyrrha asked red, as she extended a hand towards them.

"I'm fine, thanks though." She said as she got up.

"So what's your name?" Pyrrha asked.

"I'm Ruby. What's your name?" Ruby responded. At this point, Asteritch felt like he was being watched, so he droned out the girls' conversation to look for whoever was watching them. He eventually decided that light bluish-gray topped with dull yellow standing still over by the airship was the one looking at them. He used his thaumic vision to take a look at what they were like, and he was surprised by what he saw. He never thought that it was possible for someone to have a negative amount of an aspect, but this person seemed to have almost negative amounts of _Superbia_ , the aspect of pride, almost as if they thought that just about anything was better than them.

He opened his eyes and decided to call them over. He smiled and waved them over. That seemed to do the trick as the person eventually started to move towards them. "So what's your name?"

"Jaune Arc, short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it." Jaune said as they started walking to catch up with the girls..

Asteritch snickered. "Ok Jaune, here's some advice: Never say that to a girl's face."

"Ok?" Jaune said, sounding slightly confused. "Who are you?"

"I'm Asteritch," Asteritch said as he put his hand to his chest. "That's Ruby," He gestured towards red. "And that's my sister Pyrrha." He gestured towards bronze. "And before you ask why we look nothing alike, I was adopted."

"Wait, so you're not together?" Jaune asked.

At that, Asteritch was laughing out loud. "Oh my! You thought, that we… Nevermind, we're not."

"Did I hear my name?" Pyrrha asked as she turned to face them. "Oh, who would you be?"

"This is Jaune, Jaune Arc." Asteritch said. "I just told him your names, so no need to introduce yourselves."

"Are you enrolling here to be students?" Ruby asked.

"Yep." Jaune and Asteritch replied at the same time.

"Ok, so what are your weapons?" Ruby asked.

Jaune decided to go first, taking out his weapon. "I have a sword. I also have a shield that can collapse into a sheath, so that whenever I get tired, I can just put it away." He said, slowly losing his fervor as he explained it.

"Wouldn't it still weigh the same though?" Ruby asked, clearly confused about why the sheath really mattered.

"Yah, it does." Jaune admitted. "It's still convenient though."

"Mine aren't quite as fancy as that." Asteritch admitted. "They don't transform." He unsheathed his katana and unholstered his revolver from under his cloak. "They still get the job done though."

"No one appreciates the classics nowadays." Ruby said as Asteritch put his weapons away.

Asteritch slapped Jaune's back lightly. "Yah, the classics." He said. "So, where are we going?"

"The auditorium of course." Pyrrha answered.

"New question, does anyone know where the auditorium is?" Asteritch asked. He was met with silence. "Everyone is going there, right?"

"Yes, that's where we're supposed to go before we go to the ballroom." Pyrrha answered again. Asteritch closed his eyes and searched for where everyone was. He eventually found a large gathering of people in a nearby location.

"That way." He said as he pointed towards the room that people were gathering.

"... That's a wall." Ruby said, obviously confused.

"He means in that direction." Pyrrha said as she took Asteritch's hand. "Come on, follow me."

* * *

"We're here." Pyrrha announced. They had just arrived to where Ozpin was going to make his speech.

"Ruby!" Yellow yelled out. "Get over here, I saved you a spot!"

Ruby turned around towards the group. "Sorry, it was nice to meet you though!" She ran off to sit with yellow.

"So, what do we do now?" Jaune asked.

"Now, we listen to Ozpin's speech, he's getting on stage now." Pyrrha announced.

True to Pyrrha's word, Ozpin, or at least someone in black and green, was already on stage and at the microphone. "I'll...keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge-to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose – direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

"Wow, so inspiring." Asteritch said with a hint of sarcasm. For that, he received a light punch to the shoulder from Pyrrha. "What? I get that it wasn't supposed to be an inspirational speech."

Pyrrha grinned at him. "Still, you don't need to make sarcastic comments."

Asteritch chuckled. "What other humor does that leave me with?"

Pyrrha shrugged. "Why don't you try to be serious for once?"

Asteritch thought about that for a moment. "Nah, I tried that before, it was ok for a little bit, then things went south."

Pyrrha rolled her eyes. "Let me guess, everyone thought you were weird for suddenly being serious?"

Asteritch shrugged. "Something along those lines. Now, let's follow the others to the ballroom, I don't want to get left behind again."

"I second that." Jaune said as he walked between them and started following the group to the ballroom.

"Do you need guidance this time?" Pyrrha asked as she started walking.

"No, I think I'll be fine this time." Asteritch replied as he started following her.

* * *

Pyrrha had ran ahead to change into her pajamas and had already done so when Asteritch arrived to the ballroom. She was leaning against the wall next to the entrance when he entered.

"Took you long enough." She said. She paused for a moment. "Actually, what made you take so long to get here?"

"I took a scenic route took in the view, so what, you going to sue me?" He replied.

Pyrrha just huffed in response. "Are you at least going to change out of your armor?"

"No, but for two reasons." He held up a finger. "One, I'm nearly blind right now." He held up a second finger. "Two, my clothes are in my bag and I don't feel like unpacking and repacking it."

"Don't you have clothes under your armor? Can't you just take off your armor and wear those?" Pyrrha countered. As if to prove a point, Asteritch lowered his faceplate from the top of his helmet down, revealing it's black form. It was designed to look like an angry face. "Seriously?"

"Yep." Asteritch replied.

At that moment, shouting could be heard throughout the room. "OH NOT YOU AGAIN!" Asteritch started walking towards the noise while Pyrrha followed in curiousity. They arrived at the scene and saw Yellow and White arguing with each other with Red, most likely Ruby, watching along.

Asteritch decided to intervene. "Now may I ask what you are arguing over so loudly that I could clearly hear you from across the room?"

Yellow answered first. "She's being annoying as hell and not accepting an apology from my sister!"

Asteritch sighed. "I know from personal experience that with things like that you should just let it go and let people cool off."

White stiffened at his voice. "You're the one who bumped into me on the airship!"

"That was you? Like I said, I'm sorry about that." He replied.

"You don't recognize me?" White asked.

"I'm sorry for basically not being able to see right now." He replied with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

"You're blind?" Ruby asked.

"No, it's just that today everything is blurry for me." Asteritch replied.

"How much so?" She asked.

"You are all just blobs of color right now." He clarified. "I can't even see your faces."

White seemed to notice the person next to him. "Why do you seem familiar?"

Pyrrha froze up at this, so Asteritch decided to intervene. "This is my sister Pyrrha."

"What's your last name?" White asked.

'That's exactly what I wanted to hear.' "The last name is Praecuos." He decided to turn the attention back onto White. "What's your name?"

White huffed. "I'm Weiss Schnee for your information."

"Noted, now can everyone stop arguing so that we can sleep. We have quite the day tomorrow."

"Exactly!" Weiss almost shouted. She probably would have continued if Asteritch hadn't given her a stern look through his mask.

"Thank you, goodnight everyone." Asteritch said as he walked away. He eventually found the wall and decided to sit up against it. 'I sincerely hope those three don't end up on the same team or else no one will ever get any sleep.' He thought as he drifted off into sleep.


	3. Initial Nightmares

**As usual, sorry for the long wait, classwork has been plentiful so spare time has been hard to come by. Also, due to loss of inspiration, my other fanfic, Reassembling, is going on hiatus until I get my inspiration back to continue it. I will also say this in Reassembling.**

 **Pyrrha will be slightly OOC in this due to growing up with Asteritch, other characters will also be slightly OOC. There are OC's introduced in this chapter, and there will be many more in later chapters, so don't read if you aren't ok with what I've just told you.**

 **Also this story might be getting a change in title, I don't know what to, but it might.**

"Normal speech."

'Thoughts of person being followed.'

' _Thoughts that the person being followed hears, but aren't theirs._ '

Asteritch

Asteritch had a feeling of dread course through him before he even opened his eyes. As he opened his eyes, he noticed a couple of things. First, he wasn't where he fell asleep, and second, this place seemed familiar.

As his vision focused in on his surroundings, he was able to answer why the place seemed familiar, though it still left a question. 'Why am I in the Other Place?' He asked himself as he stood up. Even after all of these years, he would never forget the unique gray-green corridors of the Other Place and all of the horrors within them.

Speaking of horrors within this place, this particular corridor was disturbingly empty, nevermind the fact that it was completely straight and devoid of turn offs and alternate paths. These things were always chock full of traps, monsters, or both.

Seeing as he had no other choice, he started walking down the corridor. After walking for what seemed like a few minutes, he reached the end of the corridor. Confused, he turned around to see where he missed a turning, only to see a figure in full blood red plate armor standing there and staring at him.

For some reason, this figure made him freeze in fear when he saw it. As he regained his senses, he slowly reached for his katana. As he did this, the figure also reached for its katana at its side, also blood red. He drew his sword and swung it down to his side as he crouched down, the figure copying his every movement. He dashed forward and sliced his sword upwards, only to watch the figure do the same as everything went black.

* * *

Asteritch jolted awake, promptly lifting his head up and slamming it against the wall he was leaning against. Fun fact: plate armor doesn't protect all too well against blunt force and aura might prevent damage and thus stop a bruise from forming, but things still hurt from impact. He held his hand up to the back of his head as he winced in pain.

"Are you ok?" Pyrrha asked. Asteritch wasn't expecting her to be right there, so her voice startled him and prompted him to jolt up and crush his armored hand in between the wall and his helmet. This obviously hurt his head more and caused him to wince a bit more.

Pyrrha winced at his pain. "Sorry."

Asteritch shook his head to help alleviate the pain. "It's ok, you just surprised me, that's all." He regained his composure and started standing up.

"What happened?" Pyrrha asked.

"What do you mean?" Asteritch asked as they started walking to the armory to drop off their bags.

"You've never reacted that badly to me waking you up, so what happened that made you so jumpy?" She clarified.

'Should I tell her?' He debated. 'Screw it, I can tell her the basics of it.' "I had a nightmare."

She had a look of disbelief on her face. "You're that jumpy from a nightmare?"

"I don't remember much from it, but I remember that it was bad." He half-lied.

"Do you remember why it was so bad?" Pyrrha asked.

"It brought back bad memories, memories of before my arrival." Asteritch admitted.

Pyrrha's look of disbelief morphed into one of shock, then one of confusion. "Wait, isn't that good? It means that you're finally getting some of your memories back!" Her look morphed into one of excitement. "You might actually remember who you are!"

Asteritch sighed. "The only questions now are who was I and do I still want to be them."

Pyrrha frowned. "Don't be pessimistic, I'm sure you were a good kid." Asteritch said nothing. They were in the armory when she asked another question. "Why did you say that our last name is Praecuos?"

Asteritch shrugged. "I didn't."

"Yes you did." Pyrrha responded.

Asteritch slowed as they approached their lockers. "No, I didn't, I said that my last name was Praecuos." He looked over to see Pyrrha's look of confusion and decided to explain. "Look, I told her that we were siblings, she then asked me what my last name, assuming that we had the same last name, which we don't."

"Yes we do." Pyrrha corrected as they opened their lockers.

Asteritch shrugged. "By law, but I found out my last name long ago."

"How?" Pyrrha asked, intrigued by this new information.

Asteritch shrugged again. "I remembered."

Pyrrha stopped. "You know what? I'll ignore the fact you have been hiding information from me and come back to why you tricked Weiss." She said with a little bit of venom in her voice.

Asteritch stopped as well. "Pyrrha, not everyone is like Sapphire and will respect your request to not tell others who you are. If Weiss had found out, I bet everyone would have been asking for your autograph by now."

Pyrrha tried responding, but couldn't think of what to say. Finally, after they had started leaving their lockers she responded. "You don't have to protect me, I can handle the consequences."

Asteritch chuckled. "Well, if you were found out so soon, I would also be known, which would just be tiring for me."

Pyrrha lightly punched his arm. "Ya, ya, stick with your stories. We need to head out to the cliff for initiation."

He indicated to the door. "Don't let me stop you then."

* * *

"For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." Ozpin announced as everyone arrived at the launch pads.

"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of "teams." Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... today." Professor Goodwitch announced, which was met with many looks of excitement.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well." Ozpin continued. "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years." This was met with many confused looks and many people questioning the professors' sanities.

"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you will die." Ozpin continued saying as if the previous thing wasn't crazy. "You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

Jaune, who was standing to the left of Asteritch, raised his hand. "Uh, sir? I've got, um... a question. So, this landing... strategy thing... Uh, wha-what is it? You're, like, dropping us off or something?"

All Asteritch could do was facepalm at his lack of awareness. "Jaune," Jaune looked over to Asteritch. "Just look to your left, that should answer all of your questions." Jaune tilted his head in confusion, then he turned to his left. As he did, the person next to him, Ruby, was sent flying from the launch pad.

Jaune only had time to let out an "Oh" before he was launched. Asteritch lightly gripped his sheathed katana before he was launched as well. He glided through the air, holding himself in that position. As he dipped into the treeline, he slashed upwards and followed the winds created, essentially bouncing him gently upwards out of the treelines. As he reached the treeline again, he sheathed his katana and held out both of his hands in front of him just in time to catch and swing around a branch. He kept swinging until he was sure it was over, and then dropped down.

He stood up to the sound of a distant gunshot, followed by what sounded like Pyrrha shouting "I'm sorry!" 'The hell?' Asteritch thought, 'Why is she already apologizing to someone? What did she do?' He looked around and figured out where the gunshot came from. 'Ok, so it came from that direction.' He thought as he turned to face away from the cliff and started walking. 'She needs a partner who isn't me.'

* * *

He eventually came across a very peculiar sight. Pyrrha was standing at the base of a large tree looking up and Jaune was pinned to the trunk several meters up via Pyrrha's spear in his hood. "You two already partners?" Asteritch asked. Pyrrha quickly turned around in surprise.

Before she could speak up, Jaune did. "Yes, we already made eye contact. She pinned me to the tree to stop my fall and came over to help me out." Jaune paused for a moment. "Sorry if you wanted to be partners with her."

Asteritch chuckled. "Don't be, I'm glad she didn't get me as her partner and instead got someone slightly newer."

Pyrrha scowled. "This again? Really?"

Asteritch looked back down to Pyrrha. "It means that I get to be someone else's partner as well, so everybody wins."

Pyrrha was about to say something else before Jaune cut in. "A little help would be appreciated." At that moment, the spear holding Jaune up fell out, sending Jaune crashing down to the ground.

Asteritch sighed as he facepalmed. "This is going to be a long trip, let's get started." He and Pyrrha started walking. A few steps in and Jaune is still flat on his face. "Jaune, let's go okay?"

Jaune pushed himself up scratches along his face now apparent. "I'm coming."

Asteritch glared at Jaune. "Jaune, why don't you have your aura unlocked?"

Jaune chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. "Well, you see… I didn't think it would be that big of a deal."

Asteritch stared at him with a deadpan look on his face, though it was hard to tell with the mask in the way. "You came to a school where you will fight normally deadly monsters and didn't think that your lack of protection was that big of a deal, correct?"

Pyrrha stepped in front of Asteritch. "Asteritch, stop."

Asteritch tilted his head. "Why?"

"Don't you remember when you first sparred with me?" Pyrrha asked.

Asteritch paused for a moment. "Really? So he says the magical words and suddenly you're on your boyfriend's side?" Pyrrha and Jaune were beet red at that point. "Those are completely different circumstances. I still could go to combat school and learn, he might die out here."

Pyrrha took a deep breath. "He can still learn as well, he might already be a good fighter, so can we drop this?"

Asteritch paused for a moment. "Fine." Silence ensued. "Why are you two blushing?"

Jaune spoke up. "You kind of called me her boyfriend."

Asteritch tilted his head. "And? She wouldn't stop talking abou-" He was interrupted by Pyrrha magnetizing his armor and throwing him into a nearby tree. The tree wasn't that large and so it snapped as he collided, slowing him down substantially. His loss of speed caused him to drop and start rolling on the ground, only to stop at another tree. He groaned as he slowly pushed himself up from the ground. "Really Pyrrha?" He asked. He finally got up. "I get your point so can we get moving now?"

"What about my aura?" Jaune pointed out.

Asteritch thought about it for a moment. "But first, Jaune's aura."

They both walked up to Jaune, which caused Pyrrha to look towards Asteritch. "Asteritch, I've got this, ok?"

Asteritch chuckled. "I know, I'm just making sure you don't pass out like last time." 'Even though last time it wasn't her fault for passing out.'

Pyrrha rolled her eyes. "Fine." She placed a hand on Jaune's chest as Asteritch placed a hand on her shoulder. They all started to glow as Pyrrha started chanting. "For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee." They stepped back and watched as the cuts and bruises on Jaune's face healed before their eyes. Satisfied, they started walking off.

* * *

They soon arrived at a cave entrance with several obvious drawings of death stalkers at the entrance. Asteritch was apparently the only one who saw them as a warning, and he thought to tell his companions the warning.

"How hard is it to understand that there is a death stalker in that cave?" He was currently having trouble with getting the warning across.

"That painting is ancient, the death stalker wouldn't still be there to this day." Pyrrha reasoned.

"Or they drew those pictures to divert people away from the relics inside." Jaune argued.

Asteritch stared at them incredulously. "Fine, you go on in there, I'll go looking for the ruins in the meantime." He said as he started walking off. "Have fun." Pyrrha huffed as she entered the cave with Jaune in tow.

* * *

Asteritch walked aimlessly through the forest for a few minutes, only to be interrupted by a voice.

"Hello there." A smooth, masculine voice said behind him. "You're Asteritch Nikos, aren't you?"

Asteritch sighed. "What does it mean to you?"

"Absolutely nothing, I'm simply curious if you have a partner, as I'm without one." The voice replied.

Asteritch turned around to look at the mystery man. Said man was several feet away, though they were in a less dense section of the forest and could see each other clearly. The man was wearing a blood red trench coat with a set of dark green formal shirt and pants on underneath it. The real eye catcher was his red top hat with a blank white smiley face mask in front of his face. The face wasn't even stylized or curved to fit his face, it was just a smiley face that a child would draw that had been placed onto a plate of white metal. The mask didn't even cover his entire face, his chin was sticking out of the bottom. The eyeholes were also rather large, with Asteritch easily able to see the man's dull silver eyes.

"So are we partners now?" Asteritch asked.

"Yes." The man answered. "Now I believe introductions are in order." He stuck his hand out. "I'm Malachite."

Asteritch reached out and shook Malachite's hand. "I'm Asteritch, but you knew that already."

"Now I believe that we have a temple to go to." Malachite said as he started walking off. "I was just there, but didn't grab a relic due to not having a partner." Asteritch followed. They didn't walk for long before they arrived at the empty temple. In the distance, eight people were fighting a death stalker and a nevermore.

"I told them." Asteritch grumbled as he looked more closely at what relics were still available. "Hmm, two white bishops, who knew it would be chess pieces?" They walked down to the temple and grabbed one.

"I thought that there would be more exci-" Malachite started saying before being interrupted by the sound of a distant explosion in the forest in front of them. A beowolf came flying at them, only to fall short and tumble to a stop. The two warriors eyed it suspiciously before walking over to investigate. As they neared it, another explosion, though this one sounded closer but still soft, emanated from the forest as yet another beowolf came flying out. The only difference is that a man walked out after this one.

The man was a full head taller than Asteritch, unlike Malachite who was the same size as Asteritch. He wore a black tank top that was rather form fitting due to it being a bit too small. The man was about two feet wide at his shoulders and was extremely muscular, almost comically so. He was bald, but had a purple bandana with yellow stars around his forehead and above his light blue eyes. He wore a pair of red boxing gloves that had two clear crystals on the back of each glove. He also wore a pair of red shorts that reached below his knees and a pair of red and white athletic shoes.

Malachite was the first to react. "Who are you?" he asked simply.

"Ar." The man grunted in a deep voice.

"Your name is Ar? That's not a nickname or something?" Asteritch asked with hopes that it was a nickname.

"Ar." The man repeated. Asteritch visibly deflated a little bit. 'Oh boy, this is going to be fun.'

"Seriously Argent, this crap again?" a feminine voice said behind Ar.

He turned his head around. "Yes." A girl walked around the side of Ar. She was about a head shorter than Asteritch and was quite petite as well. She had long, curly, pink and teal hair that reached past her shoulders. She had a light blue dress on that reached just below her knees and a pair of pink flats. Her eyes were interesting, one was pink, the other was teal. She also had a dusting of chocolate brown scales at her hairline.

Malachite tilted his head. "Is his name Ar or Argent?"

The girl shifted her weight. "Well, his actual first name is Ar, but his last name is Gent, so everyone calls him Argent, except for his family."

"But you're family." Argent grunted.

The girl rolled her eyes. "I'm your step-sister, Argent, and not even by law!"

"Still family…" Argent grumbled.

"Anyways, I'm Teola." The girl said as she straightened up. "What are your names?"

"My name's Malachite, my partner here is Asteritch." Malachite said as he stuck his hand out. "Pleasure to meet you two."

Teola shook his hand. "Nice to meet you too."

"Asteritch!" Pyrrha shouted from right behind Asteritch. This display startled him, but he didn't flinch due to this not being the first time she had done this. "Why did you just walk off?"

Asteritch sighed. "To leave you and Jaune to your own devices..." Pyrrha raised an eyebrow. "...and I really didn't feel like fighting a deathstalker, good job on that by the way."

Pyrrha chuckled. "Do you have a partner at least?"

"Of course I do, he's right-" Asteritch started saying as he turned towards Malachite, only to discover that he wasn't there. Asteritch quickly looked around for Malachite and found him talking with Ruby. "He's over there with Ruby, his name is Malachite." He saw Ruby's cheeks turn pink. 'Oh please let him not be flirtatious.' He started heading over to them.

"... I was only aware of one family that had silver eyes, I guess I was mistaken." He heard Malachite say. He walked up behind Malachite and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Malachite, I believe we have a cliff to return to and a ceremony to attend, so why don't we get on to those." He said as he pulled on Malachite's shoulder.

"Sure," Malachite responded. He turned his head towards Ruby. "We can continue talking later."

As they distanced themselves from Ruby, Asteritch turned to Malachite. "I would not recommend flirting to Ruby while her sister is around, it might be bad for your health."

"I wasn't flirting though." Malachite said, obviously confused.

Asteritch rolled his eyes. "Sure you weren't."

Teola appeared in front of them. "We leaving?"

Asteritch stiffened. "Yah, we were just about to."

"Kay, thanks." She zoomed off towards Argent. "Carry me."

"Why?" Argent asked.

"Because I want you to, silly!" Argent just sighed as Teola jumped onto his shoulders.

"...The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CRDL, led by... Cardin Winchester!" There was applause as the four boys walked off-stage.

"Jaune Arc. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie." The four of them walked on the stage. "The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR. Led by… Jaune Arc!"

That surprised Asteritch. 'Led by Jaune Arc? You mean led by the guy who didn't even have his aura unlocked?' His surprise wasn't unique, as Jaune was also voicing his surprise to Ozpin. The new team left the stage to make way for a new team.

"Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long." The four of them walked on stage while Asteritch had a mini panic attack. 'No. Please, no. Some of us actually value our sleep.' "The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY. Led by... Ruby Rose!"

Yang picked up her sister in a bear hug. "I'm so proud of you!"

Ozpin quietly coughed into his hand. "Ladies, could you please get off the stage, we still have another team to announce." Team RWBY quickly got off stage. "Asteritch Nikos. Teola Gent. Ar Gent. Malachite Dolbo." The four of them walked on stage. "The four of you retrieved the white bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team MGTA (Magenta). Led by… Asteritch Nikos!"

That shocked Asteritch. 'Led by me? This is turning out to be a very strange year already, and it's only day one, fun.' They left the stage.


	4. Off to a Flying Start

**Hi. Been a little while, hasn't it? Sorry about that, school is kicking my arse with homework. I will be honest though, I finished writing this about a week before I actually uploaded it because I wanted one of my friends to proofread it. This may or may not happen again with future chapters, as my hopes are for him to proofread each of my chapters before I upload them.**

 **Next chapter will conclude volume 1 of canon RWBY. Also, if an event isn't majorly changed from canon, I will probably only mention it.**

"Normal speech."

'Thoughts of person being followed.'

' _Thoughts that the person being followed hears, but aren't theirs._ '

 **Asteritch**

Team MGTA approached their dorm room, still excited from becoming a team. They entered their room and looked around, it had four beds evenly spaced against the back wall, a window in between each bed, a desk and dresser opposite each bed, and a door leading to a bathroom to the left. "So, what's the first order of business?" Malachite asked as he looked over to Asteritch.

Teola chose that moment to dash out of the group and jump onto the bed closest to the bathroom facefirst. "This one is mine." She mumbled loudly into her pillow. "That one's Argent's." She said as she pointed to the bed next to her.

Argent slowly shook his head as he facepalmed. He looked up to the rest of his team. "Let's unpack."

Asteritch shrugged. "Can't argue with that." He looked over the remaining beds. "I'll have the one on the edge."

* * *

 **That Evening**

"That took a lot of time, like really, why did unpacking take six hours?" Asteritch asked to no one in particular. After a few moments of silence, he decided to try something. "How about we do some team bonding?"

This was met with silence. "I'm changing into pajamas." Malachite said as he grabbed his pajamas. "...I wouldn't be against it afterwards though." He walked into the bathroom and locked the door behind him.

Asteritch looked to the room's other two occupants. "So, what do you want to talk about?" They shrugged, and silence ensued. "You're a faunus, right Teola?"

Both Teola and Argent stiffened. "Yes, a snake faunus, why?" Teola asked.

Asteritch shrugged. "I've just haven't known a faunus in a long time, so to me, knowing one is still a bit of a novelty." Asteritch gave a little chuckle. "Heck, if one came to where I grew up before being adopted, they probably would have worshipped them as an elf or a fairy. It was a pretty backwards place compared to here, but it was comfortable."

Teola tilted her head. "Adopted? Does that mean that you're-"

"An orphan?" Asteritch finished. "Yes, though when I was adopted I couldn't remember any of my past, so I got over the entire being adopted part really quick."

Teola looked down for a moment, then back up at Asteritch. "Do you remember anything now from before you were adopted?"

Asteritch shrugged. "I slowly regained my memories, though I can safely say that I don't miss it. Do you remember anything from before you were adopted?"

Teola looked shocked for a moment. "Wha? How did you…?" She then looked down with a look of realization. "I guess I did mention that." She looked back at Asteritch. "No, I don't remember much, just that I had a big sister who took care of me and taught me how to fight."

Malachite exited the bathroom in a pair of dark green sleep pants and a blood red t-shirt. He had his clothes, including his hat and mask, piled up in his arms. Because his hat and mask were off, Asteritch could see his bone white hair that reached the bottom of his ears. "Who's next?"

Teola jumped up. "Me!" She yelled as she darted over to her dresser, grabbed her pajamas, and dashed over to the bathroom before anyone could say anything.

Asteritch looked over to Malachite. "So… where you from?"

"Mistral." Malachite answered simply.

Asteritch tilted his head. "So why are you here and not at Haven then?"

"I moved here a few years ago." Malachite answered as he faced Asteritch.

"Ok, why did you move?" Asteritch asked.

Malachite paused for a moment. "...Let's just say it was a bad break-up and leave it at that."

"Ok." Asteritch replied. "Then… what are your weapons?"

Malachite walked over to his dresser and opened the top drawer. He then picked up a small white switchblade and a comically large syringe that was full of red dust and had brass bands on the ends of the container. "The switchblade is Kokkaku, the syringe looking thing is a flamethrower and is called Ketsueki."

The bathroom door was then slammed open as Teola burst through it. She was wearing a pink sleeveless shirt and teal shorts. Asteritch looked over to Argent, who simply indicated to the bathroom door with an open hand. Asteritch rolled his eyes as he grabbed his pajamas and walked into the bathroom. As he was changing, he could hear them talking outside, though it was mostly Teola's energetic voice.

He finished changing and opened the door of the bathroom in his pajamas, which consisted of a purple t-shirt, purple leggings, and his gloves. Everyone looked at him as he stepped out of the bathroom. "Done." He looked over to Argent. "Your turn." In response, Argent walked over to his dresser, grabbed another tank top, and changed into it right there. "Ok, nevermind." He saw Malachite chuckling to himself. "What's so funny?"

Malachite looked up to Asteritch. "I'm just going to take a wild guess and say that your favorite color is purple." Asteritch looked his purple pajamas over.

"Nah, my favorite color is orange." Asteritch replied with a small dose of sarcasm.

"Your purple eyes, clothes, and dark purple hair would care to disagree." Malachite retorted. "Seriously though, is your hair dyed?"

Asteritch shrugged. "Yah, and?"

Malachite rolled his eyes. "Let's get some sleep. Goodnight everybody."

"Goodnight." Everyone else chorused as they moved to their respective beds.

Asteritch eventually fell asleep and fell into a dreamless slumber.

* * *

When Asteritch woke up, he noticed a few things were different. The first thing was that he wasn't in his bed, or any bed for that matter. The second was that he was being held upside down by his ankle. "Why am I upside down?" He calmly asked whoever was listening.

Malachite suddenly came into focus in Asteritch's vision, albeit upside-down. "You're finally awake! We've been trying to wake you up for the past half hour."

"Can I be put down please?" Asteritch asked. His request was fulfilled when the force at his ankle disappeared, sending him crashing into the floor.

"We tried everything to wake you up, even tried tickling your nose with a feather, and got no reaction." Malachite explained. "Argent then picked you up by the ankle and you woke up."

Asteritch had something else on his mind though. "What time is it?"

"8:45." He heard Argent grumble. Asteritch looked to the man as he stood up and saw Argent in a uniform that seemed almost too small and still had his bandana on.

"Well shit, you guys get on to class while I get dressed and catch up, ok?" Asteritch said as he scrambled over to his dresser.

"Ok." The rest of his team chorused as they left. Asteritch quickly got dressed into his uniform while keeping his gloves on as well and bolted into the corridor. He checked his scroll and saw that he had five minutes to class and sprinted down the hallway. As he reached the t-junction at the end of the corridor, he turned to his right only to be knocked over from a force behind him.

"Ohmygoshimsosorry!" He heard Ruby quickly say from above him as he was falling. He managed to turn the fall into a roll and continued running alongside team RWBY.

"Did you sleep in too?" Asteritch asked.

"Naw, we just got sidetracked decorating." He heard Yang reply.

"Is that supposed to sarcastic?" He asked as they turned another corner.

"No, we were actually decorating and lost track of time." He heard an unknown voice say.

"Are you Blake?" He asked as he turned his head back to see the owner of the voice.

"Yes." She replied. They ran for a few minutes in silence before getting to profess- I mean Doctor Oobleck's classroom as the bell rang.

"Good morning class! Please get into your seats so that we can begin today's class!" Dr. Oobleck quickly commanded his class as he jumped out of his chair and zipped to the front of the room. The new arrivals did as they were told, taking seats next to their team members.

"Good! Now today we're going to do some general world geography so that people know where we are talking about in future classes! Now, can anyone name the major countries and continents in the world?" Dr. Oobleck asked the class. Weiss immediately raised her hand. "Yes Miss Schnee?"

"Atlas, Vale, Mistral, Vacuo, Patch, and Menagerie sir." She promptly answered.

"Close Miss Schnee, but you forgot a continent." Dr. Oobleck pointed out.

That seemed to surprise Weiss. "But that's all of the inhabited continents and regions, sir."

"True, but there is a continent we haven't settled on yet, at least not successfully." Dr. Oobleck informed the class.

Asteritch realized what continent he was talking about and spoke up. "Are you talking about Metallos, Doctor Oobleck?"

Dr. Oobleck raised his eyebrows. "So you've heard of the metal continent then?"

Asteritch shrugged. "I read a lot."

"How much do you know about Metallos, Mr. Nikos?" Dr. Oobleck inquired.

Asteritch straightened up. "Well, the island is believed to be composed of mostly metal, most people who go there end up never returning or return crazy and claim to have been attacked by metal men, there is also reportedly record-low amounts of Grimm on the island."

Dr. Oobleck raised his eyebrows again. "Indeed, those are all claims made by survivors of Metallos, though apart from those claims we know nearly nothing of the island." He paused for the moment. "Now getting back on topic to the geography of the world…"

* * *

The rest of class passed without note, so did the next one, Professor Port's class. His lecture did leave a few asleep by the end of class. "I wasn't napping, I was resting my eyes." Malachite claimed.

"Oh sure, just like how you weren't flirting with Ruby during the initiation." Asteritch retorted as they walked to the cafeteria.

Malachite raised his hands defensively. "I've told you before, it was just a compliment!"

Asteritch rolled his eyes in response. As he did so, something knocked Teola down from her spot next to him. As he went down to catch her, he saw Cardin and his team run past and dart around a corner. "Arseholes." He heard Teola say under her breath as she used Asteritch to get back on her feet.

"What was that for?" Malachite seemingly asked the empty air. Argent simply cracked his knuckles in response.

"Maybe we can get payback later, perhaps in combat class." Asteritch suggested. Argent huffed as they entered the cafeteria. Team CRDL was already sitting down as team MGTA grabbed their food and grabbed some seats near teams RWBY and JNPR.

Pyrrha spotted them as they sat down and decided to add them to the conversation. "MGTA! How has your day been?"

"It was going well until CRDL decided to be arseholes and pushed Teola over. How has your day with your boyfriend been so far?" Asteritch replied.

Pyrrha slowly began to resemble a cherry. "He's not my boyfriend!"

Asteritch looked over to Jaune. "Sorry Jaune, I think you just got friend zoned."

Pyrrha stared incredulously at Asteritch. "That's not what I meant!"

Asteritch raised an eyebrow. "Oh, so are you considering him as a possible boyfriend then?"

Pyrrha looked about ready to rip her hair out. "What I'm trying to say is I've only known him for two whole days! I barely know anything about him!"

Weiss joined in. "I never thought I would see the day when the legendary Pyrrha Nikos would lose her cool, and yes, I did find out who you really are, though I'm not sure why you'd try to hide yourself."

"Well, unlike some, we would prefer to be treated like normal people, not celebrities." Asteritch answered. "Also, that was only to keep people off of us until we were in teams."

"While we're on the topic, why did you choose to claim the name Praecuos of all names?" Weiss asked.

Asteritch shrugged. "That was my last name before I was adopted into the Nikos household." He looked over to Pyrrha. "Have you cooled off yet?" She just glared at him.

"Who's that next to you?" Ruby suddenly asked.

Malachite gave a short wave. "I believe we've already met, I'm Malachite."

Ruby seemed to think about it for a moment before remembering. "Oh, you're the one who was flirting with me in initiation!"

Yang seemed to suddenly be interested in the conversation. "Flirted with you?"

Malachite stood up and started walking away. "That's it, I quit." Everyone watched him as he walked out of the dining hall.

"What's his problem?" Yang asked.

"Well, he claims that it was just a compliment, not a flirting attempt." Teola explained. "Asteritch has been teasing him about it."

Yang looked over to Asteritch. "Do you tease everyone?"

Asteritch chuckled. "Like you don't as an older sister."

"Touché." Yang replied as she returned to her meal.

* * *

The rest of lunch passed without incident. The next class they had was combat class with Professor Goodwitch. Most of the class was spent on review of arena rules, but there was some spare time at the end.

"Due to us finishing review early, we will have some volunteer duels with the rules that we just discussed." Professor Goodwitch announced. "Do we have any volunteers?"

Teola raised her hand. "Professor Goodwitch, I would like to duel Cardin of team CRDL."

Goodwitch nodded. "Very well, Cardin do you accept the duel?"

Cardin huffed. "Hell yeah, I'd be glad to show someone their place in the pecking order."

Goodwitch rolled her eyes. "Alright, both of you get your equipment." The two fighters got up from their seats and started towards the armoury, earning a few odd looks from team MGTA.

Asteritch nudged Argent. "Do you think she's going to win?"

Argent gave a short chuckle. "No…" There was a pause as Asteritch gave him a curious look. "... I know she will win."

After a few short minutes, Cardin returned in his armor with his mace being held eagerly in his hands. Teola shortly entered in the attire she was wearing at the initiation, a light blue dress and pink flats, with her swords on her back.

"Take your positions." Goodwitch ordered. They obliged, taking positions at opposite ends of the arena. "3...2...1...Begin!"

Cardin started towards Teola as she just casually stood there. This confused Cardin, but he still charged at her and raised his mace before he got to her. As he got into striking distance, he brought the mace down over his head, only for her to simply spin out of the way as he rebalanced himself. He swung the mace horizontally to where she had spun to, only for her to cartwheel around him and deflect his mace with her foot.

Cardin growled at his inability to hit her, and then proceeded to receive a foot to the side of his head. He swung his mace again, this time at the ground. It connected and proceeded to make a shockwave which launched Teola backwards. She gracefully backflipped through the air and landed on her feet. She tutted to herself and then proceeded to pull a roll of some sort of candy roll out out of her pocket and started unrolling it.

Cardin completely stopped moving and just stared at her. "Are you seriously going to eat candy during the middle of a fight?" Cardin shouted. Teola let out a loud affirmative noise as she continued unrolling the red belt of candy. "What even is it?"

Teola smiled. "It's a strawberry sour belt." Cardin huffed and started charging her again. Before he could even swing his mace at her, she had already vaulted over him by bouncing on his head. In a flash of red light, the unrolled candy seemingly grew and changed form until it was a candy red whip. She then lashed out with the whip and wrapped it around Cardin's neck, yanked him down, and kneed him in the back as the whip loosened.

Cardin rolled to the floor in pain, and landed on his stomach. He felt a pressure on his back, so he quickly rolled with his mace swinging, only for his strike to miss. His mace suddenly was stopped as the whip wrapped around the end and proceeded to be ripped out of his hands, the force of which rolled him over again.

Teola proceeded to straddle Cardin's back and wrap her whip around his neck and slowly choke him. "What was that you said about 'showing me my place in the pecking order', because it seems like I'm above you." She said into his ear.

"Match!" Goodwitch announced. Teola unwrapped her whip from Cardin's neck where it proceeded to turn back into the candy belt. "Cardin, next time try not to just run in head first." Goodwitch looked up to the rest of the class. "Alright, that's all the time we have for duels, so class is now dismissed."

Everyone returned to their teams and walked out of the classroom. "That was fun!" Teola said as her team left the room.

Asteritch looked over to her. "What was that candy-whip thingy?"

Teola giggled. "That's my semblance, I can turn any solid sugary item into a weapon. It's also an excuse to always have sugar on me."

Asteritch had a concerned look on his face. "Have you been eating anything sugary while I've known you?"

Teola shook her head. "Nope!"

Asteritch put his face into his hand. "Oh dear, I don't want to see what you're like with sugar if you're this hyper without it."

Teola skipped ahead. "Come on! I want to get to our dorm so I can relax!"

Asteritch gave a little shrug to himself. "I guess we really don't have another option." He and the rest of team MGTA picked up their pace to match Teola's all the way back to the dorm room.


	5. Training Day: Now with Spiders!

**Hi there, I'm not dead, just busy. I don't have any excuse really, so as always, sorry for the delay.**

"Normal speech."

'Thoughts of person being followed.'

 **Asteritch**

Things went pretty smoothly for the rest of the week, with the only drama being snippets about Jaune that Pyrrha told Asteritch about after the fact. That apparently got cleared up at Forever Falls when he stood up to Cardin who had been bullying him. Things started getting interesting for Asteritch on Friday when he was returning to his dorm room after some exercise time followed with some reading in the library.

He opened the door to his dorm and found Argent and Teola talking about something while Teola was on Argent's back. As soon as he stepped in, they stopped talking and looked at him.

Asteritch stopped in the doorway. "Sorry, am I interrupting something?" He heard running from down the hall. "I think I'll go for a walk." He said as he stepped backwards out of the room and closed the door.

Asteritch ran down the hall, turned towards the exit of the building, and ran out of the building. As soon as he exited, he saw Blake in the courtyard alone, so he decided to investigate. As he walked closer, he saw her take off her bow and reveal her Faunus cat ears, then look behind her as a monkey Faunus landed a ways away from her.

Asteritch decided to intervene at that point. "You know, that bow wasn't entirely convincing, it had too much space between each half and often twitched on its own."

Blake spun on the spot and faced Asteritch. "What are you doing here?"

Asteritch stepped forward. "Did you have an argument with your team?" He received a nod in response. "Are trying to escape them to vent a bit?" He received another nod. "Do you plan on being back in a reasonable amount of time?" Yet again, another nod. "Well then, off you trot, I'll go inform your team about this."

Blake tilted her head in confusion. "So you're not going to try to stop me?"

Asteritch turned back to the dorms as he shook his head. "No, I know all too well what it's like to want to disappear." And with that he walked back towards the dorms. As he entered, he nearly got trampled by the rest of team RWBY.

Ruby was the first to react. "Have you seen Blake?" Asteritch nodded. "Where?"

Asteritch gave a loud sigh. "She told me that you were in an argument and that she needed to escape and vent for a bit."

Weiss piped up next. "But where is she?"

Asteritch shrugged. "At this point, I don't know, nor do I particularly care, sometimes people need to vent."

Weiss looked disappointed. "You're not going to tell us anything useful, are you?"

Asteritch started walking past. "Not where she is because, as I just said, I don't know where she is at this point." He started walking to his dorm.

As he approached his dorm, he could hear arguing. As he got closer, he could make out some of the conversation.

"When…you stop…?" He heard what sounded like Teola ask.

"I'm not… if…don't…." He heard another voice say.

By this point Asteritch had reached the door and could hear the conversation clearly. "Yes, it is still lying even if you don't say anything about it! If you won't tell them, I will, they are our team, they deserve to know!"

Asteritch decided he had heard enough and opened the door. "Yeesh, I leave and you were clinging onto him, I come back and you're yelling at him, is this a love/hate relationship thing you have going on here?"

Teola's cheeks went a light pink. "Shut up!"

Asteritch shrugged. "I'm a younger brother, it's my job to tease." He walked over to his dresser. "I don't know about you, but I'm going to get changed and go to bed." Teola and Argent made no moves to stop him.

* * *

Today was going to be a horrible day. Of all of his "symptoms", this was the worst, though not as bad as before Remnant. As Asteritch woke up, all he could see was spiders. These spiders were small, about the size of a thumbnail, purple, and covered everything. Now, he doesn't have a fear of spiders, but there was just something about every non-living surface looking alive as the surfaces moved with life.

Asteritch bolted straight up and brought his knees to his chest, as he did every time this happened. This caught Teola's attention, as she was already up. "You really like sleeping in, don't you?" He didn't respond. "Come on, Team RWBY asked for our help with looking for Blake." He made no move to get up. "Come on, Argent and Malachite have already left with them and I told them I would catch up with them after you got up." He still didn't move. She walked over reached for his arm. "Get up and-"

"Don't touch me." Asteritch commanded. Teola flinched at his tone of voice. "Can you get Pyrrha?"

Teola rolled her eyes. "Why?"

Asteritch gave a small sigh. "She can explain what's going on."

Teola huffed. "Fine." She ran out of the room.

A few minutes later, she returned with a groggy, half-asleep Pyrrha. "I got her, now what?"

"Spiders." Asteritch half whispered, half said.

Pyrrha perked up at this. "Is it actually happening this time, or is this the 'fan meeting incident' all over again?"

Asteritch slowly nodded. "It's actually happening this time."

"So, what's happening to him?" Teola asked.

Pyrrha turned to Teola. "This is part of the condition he has. Currently, it's causing him to see small purple spiders covering everything non-living."

Teola raised an eyebrow. "So… is he going to be staying here for a while then?"

Pyrrha looked to Asteritch, then back to Teola. "He'll be here for a good part of the morning at the very least, so if you have anything you need to do, I can stay here and watch over him."

Teola chuckled. "Nah, I'll watch over him, it gets me out of having to help Team RWBY search for Blake."

Pyrrha tilted her head. "Why are they searching for Blake?"

Asteritch decided to explain. "They got into an argument and Blake ran off, and no, I don't know what the argument was about."

Pyrrha pouted slightly. "I wasn't going to ask." She walked to the door. "I'll be leaving you two then, have fun!" She walked out of the room.

As soon as Pyrrha left the room, Teola turned towards Asteritch. "So, what is this condition that Pyrrha mentioned?"

Asteritch sighed. "Well, essentially I have occasional hallucinations, normally either spiders or blurriness, though other hallucinations aren't necessarily out of the picture."

Teola deflated a little bit. "Oh, I thought it would be more than that."

A thought came to Asteritch. "What were you and Argent arguing about last night?"

Teola looked down. "It's not really my place to… actually screw it, you and Malachite need to know." She sat down in front of Asteritch. "So, Argent is convinced that he needs to act like the rest of his family who, to be blunt, aren't smart. He's actually quite smart, I mean, not incredibly smart, but he's not dumb like he acts."

"Why does he act dumb then?" Asteritch asked.

Teola shrugged. "He thinks that if people think he's dumb, then people will underestimate his ability to use fighting strategies, which does work, but we're not going to be fighting you two, so I think he should drop the facade around you guys."

Asteritch nodded. "I agree." Silence ensued. "So what did you talk about before-hand?"

Teola's cheeks were suddenly dusted a light pink. "I… Well… Umm… I'd rather not say."

Asteritch shrugged. "Ok, what did you talk about with Malachite when we were doing our team bonding?"

Teola chuckled. "Oh, he asked about me being a faunus and I mentioned that you had said that as well. It was mostly me talking though."

Asteritch raised an eyebrow. "So he never mentioned his ex then?"

That got Teola's attention. "He has an ex?"

Asteritch nodded. "Yep, him breaking up with her was apparently the reason he moved from Mistral to Vale in the first place."

Teola had her chin in her hands. "What was she like?"

Asteritch shrugged. "I don't know, I've told you all that he told me."

Teola deflated a little. "Oh."

Asteritch smirked. "Why are you so interested in his ex?"

Teola shrugged. "I like to know things about my friends."

"Have you had a boyfriend?" Asteritch asked.

The pink returned. "I… uhm… no."

"Ok, who's your crush then?" Asteritch pressed.

Her face was becoming redder by the moment. "I… Why should I tell you?"

Asteritch put his hands up. "Fine, don't tell me." He paused for a minute. "Do I at least know him?"

Teola huffed. "Yes, you know him, can we stop talking about this now?"

Asteritch shrugged. "Sure." They sat there in silence. After a few minutes, Asteritch looked around. "The spiders are gone."

Teola tilted her head. "But Pyrrha said it would take longer for them to go away."

Asteritch shrugged once again. "True, but I never normally talk to people during this, so talking to you may have gotten my mind off of the spiders and thus make them disappear."

Teola giggled. "You are the only person I know who's actually used the word 'thus' in casual conversation."

Asteritch started getting off the bed. "What? 'Thus' is a good word."

Teola rolled her eyes. "Yes, but it's the sort of word a scientist would use to explain something."

Asteritch crossed his arms as he walked towards his dresser. "What's saying I'm not a scientist?"

"You're at Beacon, an academy for training _warriors_." Teola deadpanned.

Asteritch huffed as he grabbed some casual clothes from his dresser. "Fine, I'm not a scientist…" 'Not anymore.' His mind added. "...But I'm still going to say that word though."

Teola rolled her eyes again. "Whatever, go change." She waved him off. "I'm going to find something interesting to do." Asteritch quickly got changed into his casual clothes, which consisted of a pair of jeans and a t-shirt with something witty on it, after Teola left the room. He then left and headed for the on-campus training room.

* * *

Asteritch arrived in the training room and found Pyrrha sparring with Jaune, though it was obviously not an actual sparring session as Pyrrha wasn't fighting back, it was just Jaune swinging away at Pyrrha and Pyrrha blocking his strikes. This went on for a few minutes before they seemingly switched roles and Pyrrha was on the offence with Jaune trying to block her strikes, trying being the key word there as Jaune was struggling to block all of them.

As soon as they stopped, Asteritch decided to butt in. "Ok, Jaune, that was painful to watch." Jaune and Pyrrha quickly turn to look at him. "Look, I understand that you're new to all this fighting stuff, but the difference between you and Pyrrha is still astronomical."

Pyrrha sighed. "Give him a break, he's trying his best."

"True, but the question is," Asteritch said as he pointed at Pyrrha, "are you trying your best."

Pyrrha looked surprised. "Of course I am, he deserves at least that much from me."

Asteritch nodded. "I know, but you're not teaching him the stuff he needs to know." Asteritch stepped forward. "Let me try."

Pyrrha huffed. "Fine." She walked over to the side.

Asteritch unsheathed his katana and stepped in front of Jaune. "Attack me." Jaune did as he was told and did an overhead strike that Asteritch easily deflected with a flick of his sword. "Not terrible, form was good, but your power was pathetic, you should join Pyrrha and I for our afternoon workouts. Now, block my attack." Asteritch flicked his blade up, which Jaune blocked by moving his entire shield arm.

Asteritch then reached behind Jaune's foot with his own foot and pulled, causing Jaune to fall over. "Pay attention to your opponent's actions." He turned towards Pyrrha. "Pyrrha what have you taught him?" He turned back to Jaune. "Jaune when you block, you don't have to move the center of your shield to their weapon, now let's try that again."

* * *

"We'll call that the end of training for today, good work Jaune." Asteritch announced.

Jaune raised his arm from his position on the floor. "Give me a minute."

Asteritch shrugged. "Ok, me and Pyrrha will head back to the dorms then, I need to ask her about something anyways." Jaune gave a thumbs up in response. Asteritch and Pyrrha then proceed to start walking back to the dorms.

Once they were out of earshot of Jaune, Asteritch started talking. "So, you're aware that the dance is two weeks from now, right?" Pyrrha nodded. "So, are you going with Jaune?"

Pyrrha shook her head. "No, he hasn't asked me yet."

Asteritch shrugged. "So, ask him out, I can guarantee that he would say yes."

Pyrrha sighed. "But what if he doesn't?"

Asteritch rolled his eyes. "He wouldn't turn you down."

"But what if he did?" Pyrrha was starting to sound panicked.

Asteritch put a hand on Pyrrha's shoulder. "Pyrrha, two things. One, I knew that you liked him, which is partially why I teased you about it. Second, I can try to play matchmaker and get him to ask you to the dance."

Pyrrha gave Asteritch an unbelieving look. "You playing matchmaker?"

Asteritch chuckled. "I guess Sapphire didn't tell you about that."

Pyrrha looked confused. "Didn't tell me about what?"

Asteritch shrugged. "Nothing much, just her asking me to set her and Ferroun up and then all of her friends asking for me to help them get dates with guys as well. If you don't believe me, call and ask her."

Pyrrha shook her head. "Sometimes, I wonder if I actually know you."

Asteritch rolled his eyes. "Anyways, I hope you realize that I'm going to do my best to get you and Jaune together now, though it might be difficult due to Jaune."

Pyrrha huffed. "What, because he keeps asking Weiss to go to the dance with him?"

Asteritch nodded. "Yes, that and he's a bit dense when it comes to relationships, well, that and clueless." Asteritch looked up at where they were. "Well, have fun with whatever you're going to do, I'm going to take a nap and try to forget the spiders this morning."

Pyrrha rolled her eyes. "Whatever, see you later." She then walked off in the direction of her dorm.

Asteritch looked back to his door. "How the hell do I get them together?"

* * *

 **Be prepared for more OC's next chapter, and some mystery as well.**


	6. Dancing Among Faces Old and New

**Hi there. This was supposed to be out for Valentines day as this goes over the dance, but I finished it the day after as opposed to the day of... So happy late Valentines day? And if you're single, join the club, it's not actually that bad, less drama. I'll stop rambling now so that you can read what you came here to read, though be aware that Cinder is OOC in this.**

* * *

 **Asteritch**

Next Saturday came before he had realized, and with that came the students from the other schools for the Vytal Festival. He was in the library reading while the rest of his team was off doing their own things, Argent was working out and Teola was with him, and Malachite said he had someone he needed to meet up with.

He was in the middle of a Sci-Fi book called Pandora's Star (An actual book, that described human life in the far future in which humans discover the ability to create wormholes to other planets and even other stars, I highly recommend it if you like Sci-Fi), when he felt the room heat up a bit, such a small amount that would normally go unnoticed, but Asteritch was familiar with it.

"It's about time you got here Ferroun." Asteritch said as he looked up to the source of the heat in the doorway. Sure enough, Ferroun was there in his usual attire, a red tank top with a flame decoration on the front, gray jeans, and his orange hair spiked up and back. At his side was a person that Asteritch was unfamiliar with, he had purple eyes, not that different from Asteritch and Yang, short black hair that seemed carefully combed, black sweats, a black t-shirt, and a dark purple hoodie over that with the hood down.

Ferroun smirked. "It's good to see you again Asteritch." He pointed a thumb towards the person next to him. "This is my partner Redne."

Asteritch outstretched his hand towards Redne. "Nice to meet you."

Redne shook Asteritch's hand. "Likewise."

Asteritch turned towards Ferroun. "We have a lot to catch up on."

* * *

 **Cinder**

Cinder watched from deeper within the library as the ones called Asteritch and Ferroun chatted, not that she was listening too intently to what they were saying. Redne eventually moved to one of the tables and took out cards of some kind. Soon afterwards, teams RWBY and JNPR entered the room and started setting up a game of Remnant, though Yang walked over to see what Redne was doing and found herself playing the card game with him.

Malachite soon entered and made his way over to Asteritch. 'Of course he made other friends here.' Cinder thought as she looked back to the shelf to look a bit less conspicuous. After waiting a minute, she looked back over the group and tried to see if everyone was still there. Yang and Redne were still playing that card game, RWB and JNPR were playing Remnant still, and Asteritch was still talking to Ferroun, though Cinder felt like someone was missing.

"Fancy seeing you here Spark." A voice behind her said, though she recognised the voice even through the muffling of a mask. Cinder turned around and saw Malachite leaning right next to her on the bookcase.

Cinder smirked. "I thought you were in Mistral."

Malachite pointed to her. "I thought you were still staying with your mother."

Cinder shrugged and smiled. "Small world I guess, and my mother wanted me to get something for her."

Malachite sighed. "I'm not going to try arguing with you about that, we both know where that ends up.

Cinder nodded. "Yes, but seriously, I thought you were in Mistral."

Malachite sighed once again. "I'll tell you what I told my partner Asteritch, a bad breakup."

Cinder's smile vanished. "Really? She sounded really nice from what you had told me previously, what happened?"

Malachite shrugged. "I… don't know, she just disappeared one night and I haven't been able to find her since, though that's nothing that you need to worry yourself and your little silver eyes about."

Cinder hugged Malachite. "Sorry to hear that, at least you know I won't abandon you as quickly as she did."

Malachite hugged Cinder back, then slowly pushed her away and tilted his head. "What are you trying to imply there?"

Cinder smiled. "Nothing, I'm just saying that you're a good friend and that as long as you don't suddenly turn into an arsehole, I'll be here for you."

Malachite chuckled. "I still find it hard to remember that you're not usually like this, that you're extremely devout to your mother and normally turn a cold shoulder to everyone else."

Cinder raised an eyebrow. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Malachite shifted his weight. "Cinder, you follow your mother's every whim and often take things too far for her, kind of like your father."

Cinder's expression hardened. "Except for he's crazy."

Malachite chuckled. "Isn't everyone in our parents' game crazy?" He got up from his leaning position and started walking off. "It was nice to see you again Cinder, I hope we can talk again soon."

* * *

 **Asteritch**

Two days. That's how long he had to get Jaune to ask Pyrrha to the dance. Luckily, it was the evening and he knew exactly where Jaune would be.

Asteritch waited in front of team RWBY's room for Jaune to come by. Soon enough, Jaune came strolling up with a guitar and stopped in front of the door.

Asteritch looked to him. "They're not in there, they're off on another one of their adventures." Asteritch put a hand on Jaune's shoulder. "I need to talk with you about something anyways."

Jaune perked up. "Really?"

Asteritch nodded. "Yep, it's about the dance."

Jaune deflated a bit. "I'm not having any luck with getting a date to the dance."

Asteritch raised an eyebrow. "Really? And here I thought you might just get Weiss on your…" Asteritch pretended to look at a watch on his wrist. "... Tenth try."

Jaune gave a hollow chuckle. "I don't have many other options."

Asteritch looked at Jaune with a look of surprise. "Let's name them, Ruby."

"Yang would kill me." Jaune responded.

"Blake."

"I don't think she's even planning on going to the dance."

"Yang."

"Probably has twenty other boys asking her out, also is working the entrance to the dance, so won't dance all that much anyways."

"Nora."

"Ren."

"Pyrrha."

"Out of my league."

"And Weiss isn't?" Asteritch asked.

Jaune rolled his eyes. "Shut up."

"Alright, who else do you know?"

Jaune thought for a moment. "There's that girl on your team."

Asteritch shook his head. "No, I think she's going with her partner, but hasn't asked him yet."

Jaune shrugged. "Looks like I'm out of luck then."

"Why not ask Pyrrha?" Asteritch asked.

"I already said that she's out of my league."

Asteritch leaned forwards slightly. "That didn't stop you from asking Weiss, so why is it stopping you from asking Pyrrha?"

Jaune shrugged. "I don't want things to get awkward between us."

Asteritch chuckled slightly. "She wouldn't let that sort of thing bother her."

"Who are you asking to the dance?" Jaune asked abruptly.

"I'm not, no one really interests me that much." Asteritch answered.

"Is Malachite asking anyone to the dance?"

Asteritch shrugged. "He hasn't told me." He pointed finger towards Jaune. "Now, think over what we talked about, it might help. See you later." He said as he walked back to his room.

"Yeah… I will." Jaune replied to an empty corridor.

* * *

"Alright Jaune, you've had two days, please tell me something has happened." Asteritch said to himself as he arrived to the dance. He was dressed in the normal beacon uniform with a purple tie instead.

Yang was working the desk at the entrance in a short white dress. She smiled at Asteritch. "Do you have your ticket?"

Asteritch reached in his pocket and pulled out a blue paper ticket. "Here you go."

Yang took the ticket and quickly looked it over. "Looks good." She looked back to Asteritch. "You here with anyone?" Asteritch shook his head. "Well, if you need a dance partner," She winked at him. "... You know where to find me." Asteritch rolled his eyes as he walked into the ballroom.

'First things first, check up on Jaune and Pyrrha.' He quickly glanced over the dancers on the floor and didn't see either of them. He then checked the outside ring of people around the room and they still weren't there. 'Maybe they're outside.' He quickly walked over to the exit to the balcony.

As he approached the doorway, he could hear Pyrrha talking. "You're the kind of guy I wished had asked me out to the dance." Asteritch stood to the side of the doorway. "You don't treat me like a superstar, you just treat me like a normal girl. Around you, I can just be Pyrrha, not Pyrrha Nikos, the invincible girl. There's only a few people like that, with Asteritch being one of them."

"Come on Jaune, this is your moment." Asteritch whispered to himself. "She just said that she wished you had asked her out, just do it already." Silence ensued. After a few moments, Asteritch could hear Pyrrha's heels clicking as she walked towards the doorway.

Acting quickly, Asteritch walked past and looked through the doorway. "There you are!" He said. Jaune was still standing at the balcony while Pyrrha was at the doorway. "So, how is it going?" What followed was actually quite humorous as both Pyrrha and Jaune tried telling him to stop talking without letting the other know, with Jaune shaking his head and Pyrrha doing a little neck slice gesture. Asteritch walked outside. "I need some air, you two can have fun."

"I have to do something." Jaune quickly mentioned as he darted off. Pyrrha slowly sulked back to the dance floor.

Asteritch stood there, leaning against the balcony railing as he enjoyed the peace and quiet. That was quickly shattered when he heard someone walk up next to him. "It's a beautiful evening, wouldn't you say? Crickets are chirping, the moon's casting such a lovely light upon the world." He had a deep, somewhat raspy voice.

Asteritch shrugged. "I guess you could say that."

The figure shifted next to him. "Asteritch, things are much larger than you could imagine, and they seek to try wrapping you into their plots."

Asteritch looked towards the figure. "What are you talking about?" As he saw the figure, he completely stopped. It was an eldritch guardian, black armored robes and all. "Who are you?"

The figure turned back towards the doorway. "Where I'm from, names are earned." They turned their head towards Asteritch. "What name do you think me worthy of?"

Asteritch thought about it for a moment. "Lawrence."

The figure nodded. "Then for you, I shall be Lawrence." They started walking away. "Beware, Asteritch. Shadows lurk within the corners, but sometimes shadows hold their own kind of light. Those that have to claim their light are trying to hide their darkest shadows." By the time they finished talking, Lawrence had disappeared.

Asteritch just stood there, staring where Lawrence had left. "What the hell do you mean?"

* * *

 **Malachite**

Malachite was waiting on the dance floor waiting for his dance partner. He was in his Beacon uniform with his coat and hat with his mask on. He kept scanning the room for her when someone caught his eye. It was a certain mint haired huntress-in-training and who could only be her gray haired dance partner standing on the upstairs balcony looking over the dance floor.

He discretely kept his eye on them and watched what they were doing. They kept scanning the room as well, as if looking for something or someone. The gray haired boy scooted closer to the girl and the girl proceeded to scoot away from him.

"That's all I need to know." Malachite said to himself as he scanned the room one more time. Satisfied that his dance partner wasn't there yet, he began walking to the staircase.

As he reached the staircase, he heard Nora shout. "This is happening!" At that he rolled his eyes. He'd dealt with Teola enough that he knew whatever was about to happen probably wasn't good, so he quickly ascended the staircase. When he reached the top, he could see that the two students hadn't moved from the railing, though they had slid down slightly from when he last looked at them.

He walked up behind them and tapped on the girl's shoulder, causing her to jump a little. She quickly turned around to look at who tapped her shoulder. When she did, Malachite was already in a deep bow. She gave him a funny look before he outstretched his hand palm up towards her. She looked at his hand, then to her dance partner, then back to his hand. "Sorry, Mercury, it seems like someone beat you to the punch." She said as she took Malachite's hand and followed him to the dance floor.

* * *

 **Cinder**

The deed was done, the virus was in the CCT Tower and ready to go. She had escaped from that pesky Rose and was on her way back to the dance. She fired off her semblance and created a black glass dress as she entered the ballroom through a side entrance. She looked around for Malachite, and eventually found him dancing with Emerald. She walked over to them and crossed her arms. "I thought you were my dance partner, Malachite?" As soon as she said his name, both of them froze.

Emerald stepped back and looked to Malachite with venom. "I need to talk with you, outside." She looked over to Cinder and her gaze softened. "You should probably hear this too." She started walking to the exit for the outside balcony. Malachite followed her and Cinder followed suit as well, wanting to hear what Emerald had to say.

Once they were at the balcony, Emerald turned on her heel and pulled Malachite's mask off. He managed to duck beneath the incoming slap, with his hat pulling a Looney Toons and staying in place as he ducked. He stood back up, only to be slapped by Emerald's backhand.

Malachite raised his hand to his face. "I really should have expected that one."

Emerald didn't care. "What the hell Malachite? I thought I would never have to see you again."

Malachite shrugged. "I didn't think I would ever find you again."

Cinder butted in. "What's the relations between you two?"

Emerald started to answer. "Well, he-"

Malachite put a hand on Emerald's shoulder. "Please, let me explain."

Emerald shrugged him off. "Don't touch me."

Malachite looked back over to Cinder. "Cinder, this is Emerald, my ex-girlfriend."

Cinder looked to Emerald, then back to Malachite. "Small world, though that doesn't explain why you were dancing with her."

Malachite sighed. "She looked uncomfortable with that Mercury fellow, so I thought it was my job as a friend to make her less uncomfortable."

Cinder raised an eyebrow. "Really."

Emerald stepped in. "That is actually true, thank you for that." A momentary pause. "... So you weren't trying to get back with me?"

Malachite shook his head. "No, a long time ago I figured that you didn't want to see me again, that that was the reason I couldn't find you, because you didn't want me to find you." Malachite took a deep breath. "I'm over the breakup, Emerald, you don't have to worry about that." He reached towards Emerald. "Can I have my mask back?"

Emerald look down to the mask in her hands. "Oh, here." She handed him the mask.

Malachite grabbed the mask and put it back on. "Thank you." He turned to Cinder. "Shall we dance?"

Cinder smiled and took his hand. "I would love to." They walked off together towards the ballroom.

* * *

 **Next up, the breach. Also, if you have any ideas on what this fanfiction could be called, they would be appreciated. I made the name for this story, then changed the story, so now the name won't work. Thanks!**


End file.
